"What are you?" He asks me, breaking the silence. I am quite shocked by this question. Mostly because I don't even know how to answer it.
"Werewolf. I think... And you are a vampire," I state. He nods.
"You don't smell like a werewolf." He lifts his...
I arrive at Urquhart Castle and halt, as I look around for the others. They aren't here yet. Another thing I excel at. I have to use it all to my advantage before it all goes away and levels out to their level.
I barely have the space of mind to revel at the thought, that I just ran half a kilometre in less than a second. It was the most surreal experience because even though everything went by so fast, I never once misstepped or missed a detail of the route.
I feel a wind blow at my hair from the back and turn around with lightning speed. It's just Isobel, Farlan and Alasdair. They don't look the least bit out of breath, but Farlan does look annoyed at me, however. Luckily, he seems to know that we don't have time to bicker.
"When we were here last, I saw a big old stone on the ground. I think I saw it again in the vision, so it might lead down into the catacombs, where I saw Dom... being held." I swallow against the lump forming in my throat at the last bit, as I relieve the moment when I saw him butchered and dead.
"Let's go then," Farlan says and starts walking over the bridge towards the ruins. The rest of us quickly follow as I trot past him and take the lead. We quickly arrive at the circular ruin with the big stone slab in the middle.
"This is the one," I say, nodding towards the ground. Without prompt, we all crouch down and dig our fingers in under the edge. Alasdair nods to us, and we all stand up at the same time, moving the slab with ease to the side. At first, it looks like a deep and unending hole underneath the slab, but as I look closer, I see the faintest of lights far, far down.
"You see that?" I ask, but Isobel just looks at me confused.
"What do you see?" Alasdair asks, and now it's my turn to look at him with confusion, until I realize, that my sight is probably also better than theirs.
"A faint light, and what looks to be some very steep steps leading down," I quickly shut up as I hear something faint coming from down there. I lift my hand to signal to the others to be quiet. It's hard to hear over the constant ringing in my ears, which has still not subsided completely yet, but I'm sure I heard something. Then it comes again. It's the sound of muffled conversation and the occasional echo of a step.
"Someone's down there. We have to be quiet," I whisper, and they all nod in agreement.
"I'll take the lead," I then say, and even though Falran looks a bit sceptical, he doesn't stop me. I begin to walk down the steps, which are so steep, that I have to support myself with my hands on the step before I jump down to the next. As I have moved down three steps, I hear the next follow behind me. Before long, the light starts to be more visible, and Isobel mumbles that she sees it as well. The light burns into my eyes, making me have to squint, so I let Farlan surpass me, as he would have a better chance at spotting someone at this point.
He reaches the bottom of the stairs, but before we can join him, he squeezes himself up against the wall, as I hear a pair of footsteps walk by further down the hall. As they are gone, Farlan steps away from the wall again, and I cringe as a skull falls from the wall and shatters on the ground. We all hold our breath, scared that someone may have heard. As we don't hear any footsteps for another minute, we dare to proceed and all join Farlan in the corridor.
"Let's find Dom first. Then we worry about finding Harris after," I suggest, and Farlan nods.
"You have any idea where he might be?" Alasdair then whispers to me. I try to think back at the visions, and if there might have been anything to indicate where in these tunnels he would be. Nothing pops to mind, as this part of the tunnel looks just like the one in my vision, so I bet that all the pathways are more or less identical.
But then I smell something, that makes all of my senses go on alert. It's the faint smell of iron, that I immediately recognize as blood. All of my own blood rush from my head and an insane hunger consumes me. I feel my teeth start to bulge and enlarge in my mouth, but then my entire body freezes as I hear a muffled and agonized scream. I look over at the others, and they seem to have heard it as well, as they are on as much alert as I am.
"This way," Farlan instructs, as he begins the hurry down the dimly lit pathways on feather-light feet. I have to focus on not moving too quickly as we get closer and closer to where the sound had come from. The smell of blood intensifies too, so I bite down on my tongue hard, every time my mind begins to slip from me due to the bloodlust.
We reach a fork in the path, but I'm quick to smell out the way to go. As I turn down the pathway, I suddenly stop in my tracks, as two vampires stand just a few metres down the hall, staring directly at us.
It's as if my instincts take over, as I sprint towards them faster than light and wrap my hands around the neck of the vampire to the right. His eyes bulge out of his skull, as slam him into the wall, impaling him on a broken bone protruding out. My head is pulled backwards, as the other vampire grabs my hair and rips me towards him. I feel his nails dig into my neck, and in panic, I reach my arms over my head and grab his between them. Without thinking, I squeeze my hands together and feel his cranium slowly giving way to the pressure. He starts to scream into my ear, but stops suddenly, as my hands connect in a wet splash of blood and brains. I don't have time to worry about the wet and warm lumps running down my hair and neck, as I refocus on the first vampire, now trying to peel away from the wall.
He doesn't reach far before Isobel is at my side, slamming the vampire back into the wall. Without speaking, we grab an arm each and pull as hard as we can. Without much resistance, his arms pop out of their sockets, and then the skin around his shoulder rips, and we stand back with a disconnected arm each. He starts to scream as well but is also silenced by Alasdair grabbing his neck with one giant hand. He shoves the other hand into the vampire's mouth, and wraps his fingers around his jaw, before ripping that off of him as well.
The vampire slumps against the wall, and we look at each other, breathing a sigh of relief. It's quickly gone, however, as I hear the sound of a horde running towards us from somewhere in this system of catacomb hallways.
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